MANDU - BEAUTIFUL CHILD OF NATURE AND HISTORY

I am mesmerized by historical places because these places tell us a story. A story which is just like abstract art, it’s all in front of your eyes but there is no sure way of knowing what the intention of the artist is. Mandu is one such place I visited recently and I have a story to tell about this amazing place. A long story which started 15 centuries ago and probably a reflection of how power changed hands in several kingdoms of India.

An Introduction:

Mandu is one of the hill ranges in the Vindhyas at a height of 634m from sea level. It is abundantly blessed with natural beauty and adorned much more beautifully by every ruler who has been here. Mandu is 35 kms from Dhar, a district in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and is well connected to several placesin MP. Dhar has played a very prominent role in the Malwa region from ancient history. Mandu also belongs to Malwa.  Geographically Malwa includes the Madhya Pradesh districts of Dewas, Dhar, Indore, Jhabua, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Rajgarh, Ratlam, Shajapur, Ujjain, and parts of Guna and Sehore, and the Rajasthan districts of Jhalawar and parts of Banswara and Chittorgarh.

A pictersque location in the Vindhyas on the way to Mandu- Green wheat field stretch at the hill's foot

Wheat fields everywhere

There is a fanciful legend that Mandana, a goldsmith found the Parash Pathar or the Philosopher’s stone and gifted it to the reigning king; The king built a fort and named it after the goldsmith, hence the name Mandu. 

The first mark of history in Mandu is of an Adinatha image, it is inscribed that this image in mid 6^th century was installed in Tarapur, Mandapa durga by a merchant named Chandrasimha.  Tarapur currently is a small village in Mandu and Mandapa durga is a vernacular equal of Mandava which subsequently changed to Mandu. Mandu was not heard of in the next 4 centuries.

Mandu was heard of again only in the 10^th century. During this time Mandu operated as the outpost at the border of the Kanauji Empire(Kannauj is currently a city in Uttar Pradesh, it was the capital of king Harshavardhana whose empire encompassed the entire region between rivers Sutlej and Beas) for protection from Deccan kings(five Muslim-ruled late medieval kingdoms—Bijapur, Golkonda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar, and Berar—of south-central India).

At the end of 10^th century the Paramara( a Rajput clan which was one of the prominent rulers of medieval India from 9th to 14th century) rule rose in Malwa region. For Malwa, the capital which was Ujjain until then was moved to Dhar. This period under the Paramaras brought great glory to Malwa. One of the triumphs of this dynasty was under King Bhoja who forced Mohamed Ghazni (who was on a rampage at that time) to retreat. Mandu which was a strong military base is believed to have played a crucial role in this defense strategy.

The Lohani caves were excavated and Saiva temples erected in Mandu during the period of Paramara king Udayaditya. After him, the Malwa capital Dhar became less secured militarily. His successors moved the state capital from Dhar to Mandu, which until then was just being used as a military camp. This arrangement stayed till end of 12^th century, and in 1227 AD Shamshudin invaded Malwa, sacked Bhilsa and Ujjain. But he left Mandu untouched in exchange of a treaty with the reigning king Devapala. Mandu continued as the capital.

After Devapala, Jayavarman and Jayasimha II succeeded and after a series of battles Jatrasimha II and then Bhoja II took control of Malwa. Malwa had 4 rulers in a period of 30 years. At the end of the 13^th century when Jalaluddin Khilji defeated Bhoja II he destroyed the countryside of Mandu and returned to Delhi with large loot. But he left the Mandu fort to the Hindu rulers.

A ruined Anantha Padmanabha Swamy carving found in excavations

 While Mandu was trying to recoup from its wounds it was being eyed by two different kings. Beginning of the 14^th century Mandu was hit again. Mahlak Deo and Alauddin Khilji were simultaneously trying to invade the kingdom.  The Hindu General Gogadev was killed defending the kingdom from Deo. Deo went after the king who fled to the Mandu fort.  At the same time Alauddin got access to the fort through a spy. His commander killed Deo and Malwa was surrendered to Delhi Sultanate. Thus the Hindu rule in Malwa ended.

A picture of the single raised pulpit
with marble dome in the court
of Jami Masjid-
must have been a place for the king to sit 


The Delhi Sultans were slowly becoming sloppy in controlling the kingdoms and Dilawar Khan, a governor in Malwa took advantage of the situation. In 1401 he declared himself ruler of Malwa and Dhar was made the capital again. Dilawar died in 1405. His son Alp khan, popularly known as Hoshang shah ascended the throne and moved the capital back to Mandu.  He ruled for 27 eventful years, he spread boundaries, had conflicts with Delhi and went to war with Gujarat which almost cost him his throne. However his era saw extraordinary fortification as he displayed fine architectural taste. Jami Masjid built by him and his own tomb were ranked amongst the finest monuments of East. The construction even now would take you back to those days when the Sultan would have had his court and prayers here.



Jami Masjid-entrance has a huge domed porch- As you walk into the masjid you will see 58 small domes and 3 large ones on the ceiling-Simple interiors for the Prayer hall and the court of the mosque- A limited view of the 58 small domes in this picture



A madarasa at the bottom
was bulit first(the arches at the bottom).
A 7 storied structure was bulit later.
It was made the tomb of Mahmud
Khalji. A huge dome covered his
sarcophagus with two other domes
However what is shown in the picture
is all that is left of the Mahal

 After his death in 1435, Ghazani Khan aka Mahmud Shah died in 1436. He was poisoned by his own friend Mahmud Khan who ascended the throne. Mahmud Khan known for military expeditions took Malwa to its widest limit in his 33 year long rule. A seven storied tower was raised opposite to the Jami Masjid commemorating his victory on Rana of Mewar, only the basement and the Madrasa also known as the Ashrafi Mahal has survived now.

Mahmud khan died and his son Ghiyatu Khan succeeded, he had a regal career of 31 years all of them peaceful.  Ghiyatu who never touched wine had an extraordinary fancy for women and it is said that he had 15000 women of various classes and profession in his harem. Thousand beautiful young Turkish and Abyssinian women in uniform and armed served as his guards. But he was very religious and ruled with justice. For the romantic he seemed, the beautiful scenic structure of Jahaz Mahal can be attributed to him. Ghiyatu is believed to be poisoned by his own son Nasirudin for the throne, and Nasir later had a troubled career settling domestic feuds.



The Jahaz Mahal- built on the strip of land between waters of Munj and Kapur Tanks that it presents the sight of a ship anchored in between, hence the name Jahaz Mahal



The Hindola Mahal- An Audience hall of the Sultans- Hindola palace means swinging palace


   

Tomb of Darya khan
in red masonry has four small
domes surrounding a large tomb. The surroundings
have some ruined buildings and which gives
an impression that this would have been a very important place

Nasirudin haunted by his own mind became

very suspicious and violent tempered and he

died of a high fever after an unhappy rule of 10 years. Nasirudin’s son Mahmud II faced the same domestic issues of his father’s. But with help of his Rajput chief Medini Ray overcame these problems.Ruins from The Gada Shah (which means Beggar King) shop and house are speculated to  belong to Ray and his consort.  Insecure by Ray’s power, Mahmud  fled from Mandu and with the help of Gujarat’s Muzafar Shah II  ousted Ray to regain power. Muzafar’s successor Bahadur Shah invaded Malwa in 1526 and imprisoned Mahmud. The tomb of Darya Khan is a historical structure belonging to Mahmud’s  period; Darya Khan was an officer at Mahmud’s court.

   
   




The View of Baz bahadur palace from
the domes of roopmati pavillion

Humayun conquered the fort dethroning Bahadur, after Humayun left Mallu Khan aka Qadir Shah crowned himself at Mandu in 1536. After 6 years, Sher Shah invaded Malwa and his governor Shujaat Khan was appointed who died as the independent sovereign. Shujaat’s third son declared himself as ruler with the name Baz Bahadur.Baz Bahadur had a disgraceful defeat with Rani Durgawati, after which he took to music. The beautiful and famous Rupamati became his companion.  When Akbar’s General Adham Khan invaded Malwa Bahadur fled leaving Rupamati behind. Rupamati committed suicide to avoid being the victim of the enemy’s allurements.



The Roopmati pavilion- the basement intially was used as the military watch post. Later the first floor and the domes were made for Roopmati, who used to come here daily for seeing the Naramda River

During the Mughals Mandu lost all its glory. A recreation palace at the current Nilakantha temple was built by Budagh Khan, a governor at the fort.

The Nilakantha Main temple-A Muslim pleasure house converted to a Shiva temple because it is believed to be built on a Shiva Shrine

Akbar visited Mandu four times, his successor Jahangir spent 7 months here, Shah Jahan when was a prince visited Mandu twice. This beautiful resort for the Muslim rulers has been named by them as Shadiabad, ‘The City of Joy’. Mandu has been mentioned with reverence for its fortification in the Medieval Persian histories and also in the Memoirs of Jahangir.  One of four architects of Taj Mahal, Agra visited Mandu to study the structures here as reference for their new project in Agra.

Mandu hit a smooth road when Malhar Rao, the Maratha General invaded Malwa in mid 18^th century.  

The view of the city from Roopmati pavilion







 

INDORE

For a native to tell a visitor what places in the city are worth visiting can be difficult I guess. When we enquired in Indore what places to visit we could see the puzzled look. But all it took was stepping out of the hotel room and Indore’s liveliness unveiled itself.

Chappan Chowk-crowd enjoying their evening

We were staying at The Balwas International, South Tukoganj. We wanted to get a feel of the city and started exploring Indore from the Chappan Chowk. Chappan is 4 km from our hotel and we walked to it.  The south Tukoganj streets had nice big houses and pretty boutiques leading to main roads hustling with heavy traffic, public transport seemed mediocre. After a 30 min walk, the site of Chappan Chowk did not let us down. The Chappan also known as Chaat market is said to have 56 food stores(chappan means 56 in hindi), I tried to get a count but couldn’t really get an accurate number. If you are a student looking for some variety of food joints in affordable prices after 5 pm you would find yourself at this place often. Mind the timings; post 6 pm is the best time to be here. The choices of food- Indian hotdogs, all types of Indian chats and sweets, sandwiches, pizzas, Chinese, momos, maggi with Punjabi tadka, chai, lassi and what not. After a nice snack and hot chai we returned to our hotel. We planned to go to Sarafa the next night for dinner.

  

A mixed chat platter at Chappan



food stalls in Sarfa

 Indore has always been known as the place for great snack lovers, but you need to go to Sarafa to really see how much they love their snacks. It is a market for gold jewelers in the morning where food joints are opened after 9pm and go on till 12 am. No food joint has the facility to sit and they are all live food counters; you keep moving from one joint to another. It is more like pub hopping; just that food replaces the drinks.  

Live Counter-Makke ki khis and Garedu

The specialties of Sarafa are Garedu – deep fried 2 inch long pieces of Yam and makke ki khis – cooked and finely ground American corn with some spices. If you have a sweet tooth this is your spot, with big dishes of kalakand, gajar halwa, gulab jamoon and other Indian sweets. You will find the other common favorites from dosas to chat items also. Sarafa is a food lover’s paradise. 


Night view-Rajwada

Just adjacent to the Sarafa Street is the Rajwada. The 200 year old palace in shades of brown and white, has the first three floors built in stone and the rest four built in wood . The palace has survived 3 fire accidents.There is a garden with some fountains in the front. This monument looks distinguished and noble. The king Malhar Rao Holkar has built the Rajwada and made it his residence. The whole setup gives an impression that this place might have been the commercial centre of Indore for quite some time. If you walk further ahead to a distance of 300metres, there you will find the Chattrees. From a distance they look like 2 very beautiful Marathi temples, they are actually memorials of the Holkar rulers. It is said that the Chattrees have been built on the burial sites of the Holkar rulers. These places are closed to visitors by 5 pm in the evening, so be sure to be there before that for a detailed tour of these places.



The Lal Bagh Palace



The Lal Bagh palace was another beautiful place to visit, should not take more than 30 minutes to complete its tour. It closes at 5 30pm and is 6 km away from the airport, so this can be the last stop before leaving from Indore . The Lal Bagh palace is a 150 year old palace associated with Tukoji Rao and Shivaji Rao of the Holkars. It is a two storey building with around 25 acres of open land around, the statue of the Queen still remains in the garden (which is kind of annoying). The Narmada river (which is now a small water canal) flows by the palace. There is a big entrance hall with high pillars made of colorful marble and some beautiful printing of colorful dotted peacocks on the walls (I don’t even know what it is called). On either sides of the hall there is a billiards room, two assembly halls and one reading room (it is what I remember). All the ceilings have beautiful paintings, the kind you find in the movie Da Vinci code. There is a beautiful gold colored border on the non marble pillars and around the paintings on the ceilings, the furniture is exquisite. The kitchen is on the other side of the Narmada River, food from the kitchen would arrive from an underground tunnel to main dining hall, and the lift is still there for visitors to see. The dining hall with 25 feet long dining table along with smaller round dining tables around can accommodate 50 delegates at a time, I am sure this could be converted to a ballroom accordingly also. On either sides of this hall are two other smaller dining halls- one Indian and one western.  On the first floor, there is the king’s bedroom, queen’s bedroom, queen’s dressing room and a huge Bathroom. The furniture is minimal and simple. You can also find on display the hunting escapades of the kings, two or three dead leopards and tigers. Outside, there is the tomb of peer baba and another small Shiva temple. The guide said that the entire structure has been designed and made of material brought from Europe. The grandeur of this palace is inexplicable and breathtaking.  It is an amazing monument I should say. This is a must-see visitor spot in Indore.

Sabudana khichdi- you will find this at every nook and corner of Indore

There are some other interesting places in Indore to visit-Kanch Mandir- a Jain temple with interiors in glass, Choki dhani- A Rajasthan theme park, probably the museum, Zoo, Gandhi hall and the list is longer.  Around Indore there many places to visit- Dhar which is a scenic location at 35 kms, Mhow which is also a scenic location at 35 kms, Ujjain and Omkareshwar are religious places @ 50kms and 75 kms respectively, Mandu which is a historical place @ 100 kms, Patalpani which is a beautiful waterfall @ 35 kms. All these places look their best in the monsoons.

History of Indore: After the collapse of Mughals, the Malwa region came under the Maratha generals –Holkar, Scindia and Pawar who established their states at Indore, Gwalior, Dhar and Dewas.  The Holkar state (also called Indore state) was a leading state, which is now a part of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Indore state comes from the name of its capital Indore which in turn is a distortion of the name Indrapur. Initially Maheswar was the capital of Holkar state; Indore was made the capital in 1818. Indore was surrounded by 18 princely states and was well connected to all of them.

Maharani AhilyaBai Holkar

In early 18^th century, the Maratha s defeated the Mughals. Malhar Rao Holkar, the Maratha general received special grants from the Mughal emperor then. After Malhar Rao’s death, his grandson succeeded him but died in nine months. So Malhar Rao’s daughter-in-law Rani Ahilyabai took up the administration. After her death in 1795, the Maratha General Tukoji Rao ruled for next two years. After his death, strife for the crown went on between his sons and Yashwant Rao emerged to be the next leader. He defeated army of Peshwa and Scindia and conquered Pune; he was the last prominent Holkar. After a series of failing rulers, it was during Yashwant Rao Holkar third that there was considerable some progress in Indore, but in 1948 he finally signed the Accession agreement unwillingly in the wake of India’s independence.

OMKARESHWAR AND UJJAIN

We wanted to visit Ujjain and Omkareshwar on the same day.Our cab driver Mr.Aasiq (who took on the extra responsibility of being our tour guide voluntarily) was very talkative, with lot of information (some very false some very true). He told us that no boats are allowed on the Narmada after 6 in the evening, so we had to go to Omkareshwar first. We started at 9 30 in the morning from Indore.

THE SHANI IDOL

Our first stop was at The Shani temple (World’s most Vasthu compliant temple), 30kms from Indore. I haven’t seen one like this before, a 4.5 feet tall Shani idol made of black marble standing in middle of 2 feet tall idols representing the other 9 members of the solar system.  We made a really quick visit of 10 minutes and went on with our journey. It is a Ghat road to Omkareshwar, hills with mostly brown patches of trees. At few places you will find brown smooth hills and at the bottom are beautiful green fields. Driving by some villages and the ghats, we reached Omkareshwar after two hours.



OMKARESHWAR ISLAND -TOP VIEW



The legend of Omkareshwar is that Vindhya Mountains requested lord Shiva to make these mountains his abode and Shiva obliged. Omkareshwar is a Jyotirlinga, situated at the top of an island (in the shape of OM) surrounded by the Narmada river. There is an over bridge to cross the river and go to the island, but I don’t think vehicles are allowed. We walked down some stairs (500 m stretech) to reach the Narmada River. At Narmada you will find some boats to take you to the other side and bring you back. If you go on with a group of 10 in this boat it will cost you Rs.20 to and fro and it takes 5 minutes to reach the island. We took the boat, reached the island and started walking up the steep flight of stairs to the temple. The Omkareshwar Lingam does not have a regular shape and thus Shiva here is considered Nirakara (formless). At 12 noon there is Bhoj to Shiva so no darshan is allowed for next 30 minutes or so I guess, do make sure not plan your visit at this time.

 Aasiq (my cab driver) warned us about the pundits, in spite of which we took the help of a pundit to go to the main temple. The pundit initially said he would charge Rs.100 for the entire exercise but at the end of it he forced us into a pooja and asked us for a contribution of Rs.500 or more. We were very adamant and payed a nominal amount and got out of there. We had a good darshan but the mischief and unfriendly junta at this shrine disappointed us. We went back to the river hoping for a nice boat ride around Narmada. There is a Narmada-Kaveri sangam towards the left of the island; it was pleasing to watch the small waves where the two rivers join. We can have a short boat ride of 10-15 minutes for Rs.40. If you wish to go around the island in the boat, it would cost you Rs.600; this is called Omkareshwar kshetra parikrama (made famous by Adi Shankaracharya who met his guru while doing this parikrama). It is a fun ride is what I came to know, at a point you also get to pick the Narmada stones that are in form of a Lingam (these are supposed to be very holy and formed by the river sediments, these are called Narmada Banam). Also during the parikrama you can go to the Runa Mukteswar temple- where devotees offer red gram and the place where Shankaracharya learnt Advaita from his guru Sri Govindapada.

NARMADA RIVER FLOWING BELOW THE BRIDGE

 

Once you comeback from the island, there is another Shiva temple, called Amleshwar or Mamleshwar just five minutes away. Some say that this temple is the actual Jyotirlinga and some say both Omkareshwar and Amleshwar count as a single Jyotirlinga. The temple has some very beautiful work on the rear with carvings many centuries old. Their condition shows how neglected these priceless works of art are. Trying to visualize how beautiful this place would have been at its prime, the richness of the temple seemed amazing.

AMLESHWAR TEMPLE

A quick lunch break and it was time for us to start to Ujjain.The road to Ujjain from Indore is really good and well maintained. At some stretches the road was pretty with some fields of wheat and white flowers. Ujjain is on the banks of the Shipra River and has been a prominent place in the ancient Indian history. The presiding diety of Ujjain, Mahakaleshwar is also a Jyotirlinga;

On the way to Ujjain from Omkareshwar is a place Maheswar. Maheswar has a Shiva temple along with the Ahilya Fort and The Narmada River. This is supposed to be a famous tourist spot for some good fun. We could not reserve time to go to this place because of pure ignorance. I knew that Maheswar was a holy place but didn’t know of the other attractions; we missed out on this one. I had a look at the pictures of the fort later and was very disappointed about missing it. You can see the fort in a Tamil song “oru killi our killi” from the movie Leelai and you will agree that I am not overstating.(watch the video of this song below)

We reached Ujjain at 5:00 pm after a two and half hour drive. The following day was Sivaratri; the crowd was just beginning to pour in. We took VIP passes but literally ran around the place to find the route to the VIP entry; the police was on high alert. This was in complete contrast to Omkareshwar where we hardly found any police. Aasiq (my cab driver) said that Ujjain has very high profile crowd coming in for special occasions, also a sensitive area with regard to communal sentiments which explains the high security arrangements.  

The legend of Mahakaleshwar is that lord Shiva appeared as Mahakal to kill the demons that attacked the city if Ujjain and obliged to the request of his devotees to make Ujjain his abode. The Mahakal lingam looks very imposing in size with a fierce face and a garland made of silver skulls. This temple is also famous for the tradition of Bhasmarthi, a ritual during which Mahakal is worshipped with the ashes from different cremation grounds in Ujjain. Appart from Mahakal lingam, the whole temple has a consortium of small Shiva lingams, for example one series of temples are lingams installed by the great rishis atreya, kasyapasa and equals. There is a nice big kund or pond in the temple. Aasiq says there a good facility in the temple for a couple of guests to stay in too; I wonder how correct that is. We were done with the darshan in the next 30 minutes and quickly moved to Ramghat.

THE RAM GHAT - SHIPRA RIVER FLOWING BY

At Ramghat there is a small river, this is the Shipra River; on the bank of the river there are a series of Shiva temples, really small ones.  What I liked at Ramghat is a two storied old structure which looked artistic with some beautiful domes on the top and an assembly hall in the ground floor. I wonder if it was a place from where the royal families would overlook any processions or pooja that happen at the Shipra River.  Well I convinced myself that my guess could be right after coming to know about the Kumbha mela. The Kumbha mela happens once every 12 years in Ujjain and it is said that close to 3 million attend this. There are a number of small open shelters everywhere probably for the huge floating crowd of sanyasis in Ujjain.

A SHIVA LINGAM FLOATING ON THE SHIPRA RIVER

There a quite a few places in Ujjain, there is the Harisiddhi temple – a shaktipeetham, Bhadrakali temple- this where Mahakavi Kalidas worshipped Mother Kali, Sandipamuni Ashram-Lord Krishna’s  schooling was done here, the Kalbhairav temple – the idol of lord Kalbhairav consumes liquor here. Aasiq cooked up a story that it is a tradition for both men and women to consume liquor and go to the Kalbhairav Mandir, which later I came to know was totally false. Then there is the Gopal Mandir. They say that the doors of this temple belonged to the Somanth temple, Gujarat.  They were taken to Ghazni, Afghanistan by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1026, then to Lahore by Mahmud Shah Abdati. Later the Maratha leader Mahadji Scindia got them back and installed them here. I haven’t been to any of these places because we had to return to Indore by 7 30 pm.

BHADRAKALI

After a post mortem, I think a single day for the three places- Omkareshwar, Maheswar and Ujjain is definitely not enough. Ujjain is on one side of Indore and the other two are on another side of it. One can start at 9 in morning and finish with both Omkareshwar and Maheswar by 5 in the evening, go back to Indore and enjoy the Sarafa. On the next day, one can start at 9 to Ujjain and come back by 3 in the afternoon to Indore and check out the Lalbagh

KALBHAIRAV

Palace and Chattrees till 5 in the evening and take off to The Chappan street for the evening. See my article on Indore to know more.

Some info on the Transport - A prominent Cab agency Star Cabs in Indore had a package of Rs.2200 for Ujjain and Omkareshwar on the same day (a trip of 300 kms).  These prices for an air conditioned Santro. There was another Cab agency which offered a price of Rs 5.50 per km for distance exceeding 250 kms.  These prices for a non air conditioned Indica. 

ENJOY YOUR TRIP!!!

MAHAKALI-SHAKTIPEETH